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AXA's aggressive salespeople locked my wife in and she has some money in there now - about $6k. I want to change it to one of other providers available to her. Please let me know what the best choice is for lowest fees. Unfortunately, Fidelity was removed, and there's no Vanguard either, which would have been no-brainers. Is it Aspire? Also, if you guys know if we're going to get screwed by AXA on rollover fees, etc. that would be helpful. See the image for the providers.
As an aside, I also have a SEP-IRA ($25k) and a 457 ($105k) also locked into AXA, but my employer has them as their only choice with this 1985-era annuity that is absolutely savage on fees... 1.35% off the top for a "separate account fee" plus everything else. I've complained but my HR person has zero HR experience, my GM is unmotivated and nobody else knows anything. I transfer $ from my SEP-IRA to a Vanguard IRA annually via a rollover of the max amount I can that is fee-free, but beyond that, I feel helpless. As I'm maxxing out my 457 right now, I'm not even really sure I should be doing that or should I be using a different investment vehicle? FWIW, I gross about $98k and expect to retire in 17 years.
Responses to either of these issues would be much appreciated.

Hi everyone,
I haven't posted in awhile, but I knew just where to go for advice! (I'll be back more frequently going forward)
I received the letter from Vanguard regarding my 403b account, as has recently been discussed on here. I'm just not sure what to do about it, and I could really use some advice. OMNI charges me $3/month to use Vanguard, and Vanguard charges me $15/year to invest in a Target Date Fund. I decided $51/year in fees (on top of expense ratios) was worth it for the privilege of having access to Vanguard, since most of the offerings from my district are not as good. I imagine the OMNI fees won't be going away, so the partnership with Newport looks like it will raise my fees from $51/year to $96/year.
I only started investing last year, and I only have $2100 in my Target Date Fund. It looks like this fund does not have access to Admiral funds, so if I stay with Vanguard I will need to exchange these for something else to take advantage of the switch to Newport. It feels a little foolish to stay with Vanguard, however, since a much larger portion of my gains will be consumed by fees. But, given that it is a 403b, taking the money out before retirement seems like a no-go. Are my first year's contributions simply held hostage now?
Here are my options, as I see them. I have no idea what to do next, and I would love some guidance:
1) Keep the status quo, pay more in fees.
2) Stay with Vanguard, but switch into something that has admiral class shares. I don't want to use a managed fund. Higher fees remain, but hopefully I will pay less in expense ratios that will make this more advantageous. That said, my small balance means this will be marginal at best, right?
3) Treat this as a hostage situation, and we all know that the US doesn't negotiate with terrorists. I would leave my money in Vanguard, stop contributions, and open an account with someone else to begin contributing to. The decent options that I have access to are Aspire (403b and Roth), T Rowe Price, and TIAA.
4) Stop all retirement contributions, try and save $3,000 and open an IRA sometime next year.
5) Another genius idea that only the folks at 403bwise would think of. You guys rock.
The fourth option I like because, ideally, I would like my savings to not be taxed when I withdraw in retirement. But I don't have $3,000 saved, and I am not optimistic about my ability to save it on my own. Medical bills seem to be frequent things nowadays in my household, and there will always be something important that I will need to put my savings into. Having my district take the money out before I can get my hands on it has worked well so far. The ROTH Aspire is an attractive option for these reasons, but I have access to lower-fee options than Aspire so it is difficult to go with them.
I would LOVE any advice. I am feeling stuck.
Erich

Aloha folks!
So I learned a new term today... Thanks to this forum and the kind folks here, I started my journey toward fiscal responsibility and found out about my state's 457 "deferred compensation" program and a better 403b option with lower fees and better investment options. I got the 403b new account open and redirected my pre-tax savings into it. Now that that's squared away, I'm finally getting the exchange paperwork done. When I requested the paperwork and the account numbers, the advisor that set up the original 403b contract has suggested the use of a "free corridor" to avoid surrender fees.
When I looked up the term, it seems as though surrender fees can vary from contract to contract... some fees drop off completely after a certain amount of time, and some reduce by steps year after year depending on a certain amount of time. Near as I can tell, my contract with AXA specifies that the surrender fee won't fall off until after year 7, and I'm only in year 4. From other internet reading, for some contracts, surrender fees are applied to the date of the monies being deposited , not necessarily the date of the contract start.... so "free corridor" is the money that can be transferred without surrender fees, which can be done in incrementally.
The way I look at it now, my surrender fees are high, but not as bad as leaving the money in the account.... where I'd be accumulating an annual fee, expense ratios, and a quarterly penalty for an account under $XX,000. Haha... so my answer to my own question is... it's not worth it for me according to the math.
So now, near as I can tell, I have all the information and paperwork that each provider and my state's TPA requires to get this done. Whew!

I recently got a job in a new district and was looking up my options for my 403b. I had PlanMember in my previous district, which wasn't too bad and I was able to choose some Vanguard mutual funds. Below are the options for my new district. Are there any recommendations? Through some initial research it seems maybe the Aspire or Legend Group may be best. I live in NY State.
Aspire Financial Services AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company Mass Mutual VA MetLife NY Life Ins. & Annuity Corp.
Oppenheimer Shareholder Svcs. RiverSource Life Insurance Co of NY
The Legend Group/ADSERV Voya Financial (Natl NY)
Thanks for your help!

I have waited years for Vanguard to become a vendor in my district. I researched the Vanguard index fees and my Fidelity(Sparten) index funds seem to be lower. It looks like I have no access to Vanguard admiral index funds through my 403b. Am I just better off fee wise just staying with FSIVX, FSITX, and FSTVX? Any help or suggestions would be apppreciated?

I have waited years for Vanguard to become a vendor in my district. I researched the Vanguard index fees and my Fidelity(Sparten) index funds seem to be lower. It looks like I have no access to Vanguard admiral index funds through my 403b. Am I just better off fee wise just staying with FSIVX, FSITX, and FSTVX? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated?